Top 4 on Friday - Spurs captains

Hugo Loris is probably the best keeper we have had at the club - but does he rate as a captain? In fairness, he has some giant names to live up to.

This week's Top 4 on Friday looks at Tottenham's best skippers throughout the years...

4. Gary Mabbutt (611 appearances/ 477 league, 1982-98)

Not remembered as a feared or rock-hard centre-back but one of the nice guys of the game and one of the finest pros to grace a football pitch. 

Mabbutt, now 54, joined us from Bristol Rovers in 1982 and went on to rack up a massive 611 games for Spurs. 

He won 16 England caps and was part of the side (?) that won the 1984 uefa cup.

He captained us from 1987 to 1998, leading us to FA cup glory in 1991, just about keeping live wire Paul Gascoigne in check until the final. 

He battled diabetes from the age of 17 - but that  didn't stand in his way and Mabbutt is still second on club's all-time appearances list.

3. Ron burgess (339 app / 297 league, 1938-1954)

Not a name with which younger generations of Spurs fans are all too familiar but the midfielder is one of the club's most amazing success stories.

Burgess captained Arthur Rowe's famous push n run team to back-to back titles, winning promotion from the Second Division in 1949-50 and winning the league in 1950-51.

Yet the club nearly ended his career before it began, rejecting him after a year as an amateur and packing him back off to Wales. 

But on attending one last A-team game, he found them a player short, stepped in to help out and the rest is history.

He played his debut in 1939 but his early years were interrupted by the war. Still, he managed to make 339 appearances and will always be the man who captained us to a first league title. 

2. Danny Blanchflower (382 apps / 337 league, 1954-64)

Blanchflower was more than just a footballer, he was a character. The complete package - a winner and a leader, to whom style and substance was equally as important as success. 

Poetic in both voice and playing style, his quotes live on at the club and a section of one - "the game is about glory" is emblazoned around White Hart Lane.

Arthur Rowe brought the midfielder to Spurs in 1954 but, after Rowe’s retirement saw assistant Jimmy Anderson step up from the assistant role, Blanchflower was axed from the captaincy for making on-field changes. It was a minor setback.

Bill Nicholson arrived as boss in 1958 and made Blanchflower his skipper. The pair complemented one another - both passionate, determined and Spurs to the core. 

The rest is history as the partnership helped bring the League and FA Cup Double in 1960-61, as well as the Cup again in 1962 and the Cup Winners Cup in 1963. 

Blanchflower retired in 1964 to become a journalist, amid fleeting flirtations with management. He died in 1993, aged 67.

1. Steve Perryman (854 apps / 655 league, 1969-1985)

As far as Tottenham Hotspur go, Steve Perryman is Mr Loyal. And that is what gives him the edge over Danny Blanchflower.

Not only does he top the club’s all-time appearances chart with 655, but he has more medals than any player in Spurs’ history.

Perryman, who played 17 seasons at White Hart Lane, was given the captaincy at just 20 years old and held it for 14 years until he departed for Oxford in 1985.

As a midfield general he was compact but tough and won helped us to League Cup glory in 1971 and 1973, the UEFA Cup in 1972 and 1984 as well as back-to-back FA Cups in 1981 and 82.

He played under legendary bosses Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw, as well as alongside a who’s who of Tottenham legends, including Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles, Ricky Villa, Alan Mullery, Martin Chivers, Martin Peters and many more.

Perryman’s titanic Tottenham career never got the recognition it deserved at international level. He only ever won one England cap, playing just 20 minutes of a 1-1 draw against Iceland in 1982.

In fairness he had some big names to compete with as Trevor Brooking, Ray Wilkins, Terry McDermott and Bryan Robson were picked ahead of him. You cannot help but think that, had Perryman featured in his heyday, England might not have missed qualification for the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.